Wheeled carriages for supporting a patient in a substantially horizontal position are well known and a representative example of an early version of such a device is illustrated in Dr. Homer E. Stryker's U.S. Pat. No. 3,304,116, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Improvements to Dr. Stryker's innovated wheeled carriage have been made over the years. The patient support apparatus disclosed herein is another version of an improvement, which improvement is based upon the request received from the patient care industry for a light weight patient support apparatus and having features thereon which will minimize attendant injury as well as other hydraulically actuated features that are easily controllable by the attendant.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a patient support apparatus which includes a modular-like litter having mounted on the frame thereof a modularized side rail assembly, a modularized patient support deck, which modules can be pre-assembled and brought together for final assembly.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a patient support apparatus, as aforesaid wherein the litter frame includes at least a pair of tubular longitudinally extending side rails in order to enhance the longitudinal stiffness of the litter frame and to facilitate the easy assembly thereof of modularized siderails.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a patient support apparatus, as aforesaid, wherein one of the modules that can be pre-assembled includes the patient support deck which includes a head section, a seat section, a thigh section and a foot section.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a patient support apparatus, as aforesaid, wherein a hydraulic gatch control is provided at the foot end of the litter frame for easy access by the attendant.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a patient support apparatus, as aforesaid, wherein a modularized accessory mount frame is included in each of the four corners of the litter frame in order to facilitate the mounting of various accessories thereto.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a patient support apparatus, as aforesaid, wherein the modularized head section of the litter frame includes a set of laterally spaced handles in order to facilitate actuation of a movement of the head section to various inclined positions relative to the litter frame.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a patient support apparatus, as aforesaid, wherein a modularized holder for a tank of bottled gas is provided, the location of which is readily accessible by an attendant at the head end of the litter frame.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a patient support apparatus, as aforesaid, wherein an attendant work surface is provided on the litter frame beneath the head section when the head section is in a horizontal position and which is accessible and usable when the head section is raised to the inclined position.